The All American High School Film Festival is the largest film festival available to high school and middle school students. According to their website, AAHSFF allows students to get in touch with the resources they “crave” and also allows them to “showcase their talent” on a bigger stage.

Diana Ribera has taken on the task of representing our school through the sports category. Diana plans to enter both a cheerleading and a boys basketball video. The videos will be about two to three minutes long.

“I have some ideas so far. I’ve been busy with the cheerleading video, so I haven’t done much work on the boys basketball video, but I’m going to start soon.” Diana continued, “It’s hard, especially since I cheer during the games and can’t record it while I’m cheering.”

When asked about the categories students could choose from, Diana said: “You can make a video in any category you choose [from AAHSFF].”

When asked who could participate, Diana mentioned, “I think anyone from New Haven [schools] can enter, but as far as I know, I’m the only one entering from our school.”

Any middle schooler can enter into specific categories, and graduating seniors are also allowed to submit an entry.

Diana was also asked when the festival takes place. She said, “For free submission, you have to submit from November 1st, 2017, to April 15th, 2018.”

Other deadlines set by the AAHSFF include late submission from April 16th to May 14th ($20), final submission May 15th to June 18th ($35), and “I am a Procrastinator” from June 19th to July 1st ($50). These can be found under the FAQs tab on AAHSFF’s website.

All videos that are submitted are screened, and if chosen, there are various prizes and scholarships that students can earn. Official selections of the winning videos will be announced on July 16th. There are many different festivals students can attend, including college fairs, panels and discussions, Teen Indie Awards show, Photog Fest, and the Film Invitational. The Official Selection videos are the films that will be shown in New York at the AMC Empire 25 in Times Square on October 6th or 7th. The Film Invitational festival, where many winning films are shown, will take place in New York City on October 3rd.

When asked what inspiration she had for this competition, Diana mentioned, “I love creating videos that represent me and New Haven High. I want to challenge myself with something I’ve never done before. I want to be able to show my talent and creativity to the judges. This competition is beneficial to me because I can finally showcase my abilities.”

We are confident that Diana will represent New Haven in a positive light, and wish her the best of luck!